Monday, November 5, 2012

Made this dish for the third time, this time taking my mum's advice to slow braise for one hour, shut the flames and let the dish cool for one hour, and slow braise again for another hour. This time, the meat was far more tender ^.^ Success!

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My second attempt to make this dish. This time, I made a few tweaks... Read about my first attempt here :D

1) During the blanching process, I added one tablespoon of rice vinegar. My mum said that by adding vinegar to the hot water, it will help to remove the musky meat smell, as well as make the skin softer.

2) For the slow braising process, this time I made sure there's enough water to submerge the meat.

3) During the slow braising process, I tilted the pork so that the skin was facing down, in hopes of making the skin softer (think melt-in-your-mouth).

Melt in your mouth pork belly skin~ *drools*

This time, I slowly braised the dish for about 2 hours (due to the water content). The end product was almost perfect. Skin was ooh-so-soft-melts-in-your-mouth. However, I still think the meat can be more tender, so I asked my mum again. She told me, the next time I braise the meat, braise it for one hour, then shut the flames for about an hour, and let the dish cool. After that, slow braise it again for another hour. She could't really explain why (because I think she doesn't even know why it works the way it works), just to add that somewhere along the process of slow braising (without the flames), the meat will cook and tenderize on its own. Going to give this method a short the next time I make this dish :D

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